Skift Take

Is it possible to capture the culture of a city by counting how many museums, bookshops, and comedy clubs it has? Perhaps culture is under-researched because it is something that is better felt than counted.

In the midst of hosting the 2012 Olympics and being stuck on a zip line, London’s colorful mayor Boris Johnson has found the time to launch the World Cities Culture Report 2012.

Berlin, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mumbai, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo have ”come together in an unprecedented global collaboration to examine the character and importance of culture in world cities,” according to the report.